Write and Improve
Learner Orientated Assessment is the sort of assessment that happens in class and by teachers all the time and so rather than resulting in a formal assessment report, it feeds directly into the learning that is going on right at the moment.
We really like “Write and Improve”. Language learners can use it to enter a piece of writing, get it assessed instantly by some rather smart assessment software, read the feedback and then have another go to try to improve it. What we liked about it is that it allows you to see progress over time – you can go back at any time, review the scripts you have entered and the feedback received and try to improve them.
And any tool that encourages writers to see writing as a process – i.e. not something that you just do, send and forget about, has got to be a good thing.
In terms of its ability to make suggestions at a discourse level, it is pretty limited. It can, however, check things like spelling, word formation and sentence structure … and make pretty sophisticated interpretations about language level from these findings. It’s a BETA version at the moment and is free to be used but will probably be licensed at a later date, so use it while you can.
Here’s the feedback I got from the beginning of my short story about giraffes.
To try it out, go to the Write and Improve page and log in with your Facebook login or create an account.